iPad Credit Only Policy- My Experience

I felt like I should share my apple store horror story, to save other members time.

When I had finally saved up enough dough to pick up the 16gb iPad, I headed down to the local apple store with my dad.

Excited, cash in hand, I walked up to the nearest employee and told him I wanted to buy the iPad. The employee told me to hold tight while he went back into the mysterious silver door to fetch the box.

Finally he returns with the prized box and he asks how I'm going to be paying. (I feel like this should have been an easy one since I had the cash in my hand) I tell him cash, then a look of fear swept his face as he told me they don't to cash. Me and my dad were trying to decide what to do; I decided I'd give the cash to my dad then he could write a check.

Simple enough, it had to work right?

Wrong.

Again, he tells me that they can't accept checks, and that with the iPad, they can only accept credit as payment (a very dimwitted policy in my opinion). While I was really angry with how smug the employee was acting already, I knew that it was all Apples fault and I'd just have to take business elsewhere.

Next, we used the largest Mac in the apple store to navigate to http://www.bestbuy.com to check if the iPad was available in any stores near our location. To our advantage, there was a best buy near, and we headed over. We went in, got the iPad, and got out. We paid cash, no questions were asked.

After i got home, I typed up some polite hate mail to Steve Jobs on my new iPad.

Just to save time, don't deal with the hassle apple stores like to cause. Shop best buy.

I had to deal with the same thing when I got my iPad. I had cash in hand and the Apple Store would only take credit for it. Luckily It was in a mall and guest services had American Express gift cards. Of course it cost me $3 extra but at least I didn't have to search for a best buy. No one else had any iPads in my area anyways.

Wow, that's idiotic. The stupid guys don't take cash or checks?!?! Cash is the best, forget credit lol. I'll probably get mine on credit though because my parents owe me $500 and then they'll pay with a credit card haha.

I had the same exact problem! Only accept cc nothing else than cc, cash is a failure to them, i thought to myself isnt cash better for apple? Or do they just want to sell ipad through cc to get the extra money

When a friend of mine was buying a 3GS, they had to sell him a gift card for the exact amount of the iPhone, and then have him buy the phone with the gift card. Idk why they can't accept the cash directly.

Apple retail stores aren't really "cash-oriented"; usually employees throughout the store will ring you up with handheld credit card readers and a receipt is emailed to you. I do have some sympathy for your hassle, however, as I underwent something worse: I showed up at my local Apple Store at 5:30 AM on 3GS launch day (I was third in line) only to be turned away after the store opened because the holder of my AT&T account was not present. That sounds reasonable, but the night before I had called AT&T, made arrangements so that the adult accompanying me would be an "authorized" customer, and was assured by an AT&T employee that said arrangements would be enough to purchase at an Apple Store. The communication error is understandable, I guess, and it all worked out—I proceeded to an AT&T retail store (which had no line) and walked out with a 3GS a few minutes later. But I wad god-damn pissed off after being turned away from the Apple Store.

I had the same exact problem! Only accept cc nothing else than cc, cash is a failure to them, i thought to myself isnt cash better for apple? Or do they just want to sell ipad through cc to get the extra money

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Haha; Apple pays a merchant fee when somebody uses a credit card. Ever wonder why some businesses say "NO CREDIT CARDS FOR TRANSACTIONS UNDER $3" or similar? It's not worth it to get hit with the fee for cheap items.

No, I'm sure there's a different reason for not accepting cash. With the iPhones it was to prevent bulk purchase, unlocking, resale.